Court hears arguments on political primary rules

A federal judge heard arguments but made no ruling Thursday on whether primary elections should be open or closed in South Carolina.

The state GOP is seeking to have a closed primary, where voters would be required to register by party. Right now, a person does not have to be registered with a party to vote in its primary.

The state attorney general has asked that the case be dismissed. On hand for the hearing was Deputy Attorney General Robert Cook. He says open primaries are perfectly legal.

We feel comfortable with our position and we believe the state statutes are valid and constitutional and should be upheld.

Karen Floyd is the chairwoman for the state GOP. She supports closing the primaries.

We… set forth very strong constitutional grounds that showed the court, hopefully, on the merits… of the case itself, that we have enough grounds to change the way that we are actually looking at our laws.